Monday, March 11, 2013

As you have doubtless seen by now, Rabbi Yehuda Bloch, a spokesman for the Nahal Hareidi program in the IDF, penned a piece last month, "12 Good Reasons Why Secular Israelis Reject Haredim". His first three points:

1. We've chosen, for understandable educational reasons, to withdraw and
live in exclusively Haredi cities and neighborhoods, avoiding as much
as possible any social contact with the secular.
This is legitimate and understandable, but as a result they don't really
know us, amd so they naturally view us as bizarre, in our manner of
dress, our behavior, and our language. This creates aversion and
alienation. Why, then, we are angry at them for treating us this way?
2. We chose, for educational reasons—although some of us really believe
it—to teach our children that all secular Israelis are sinners, vacuous,
with no values, and corrupt.
This could possibly be a legitimate view, but, then, why are we shocked
when the secular, in return, teach their own children that the Haredim
are all primitive, with outdated and despicable values?
3. We have chosen, for the sake of the preservation of Torah in Israel,
to prevent our sons from participating in carrying the heavy burden of
security, and instead tasked them with learning Torah.
Of course we could not give that up, but why are we outraged and
offended when the secular, who do not recognize nor understand this
need—or rather most of them are familiar with the issue, but argue that
there should be quotas—see us as immoral, and some despise us as a
result?

Naturally, his article - the rest of which is available here - was a big hit among critics of Hareidi society. However, I wonder: What would appear in an article entitled, "12 Good Reasons Why Haredim Reject Modern Orthodoxy"?

I have a few ideas, but I'm more interested in yours: What do you think would belong on the list?

14 comments:

1. Fear. We're afraid of engaging with the world. You do so, and even (somewhat) successfully; it's a threat to how we see the world, and ourselves.

2. Rejection. We have constructed a narrative from Moshe l'Yehoshua till the yeshivos of today. It says we are the true representatives of Torah. Your thriving communities reject that narrative, and ergo, us.

To echo R' Joel, "we don't see serious commitment to halacha and learning." (And those who are MO and are seriously committed? We make sure you don't see them.)

L'maan sfos haravah es hatzmeiah, in Sforno's sense -- I work this hard, and you're telling me it's all fun and easy? (Well with serious commitment no it's not all fun and easy, but you look at mo-lite...)

(Rabbi Rakeffet was invited as scholar in residence to one city, where the Bais Yaakov declined to have him speak -- "we don't want the girls to see a talmid chacham that big wearing a kipa sruga.")

MO has a spectrum of views, some of which increase the uneasiness or suspicions of more traditional Jews.

Some MO adherents known to the general Jewish public are vague in theory and/or practice about how the M should relate to the O. That doesn't inspire confidence among serious Jews who want clarity.

Some others are clear but their expressed core views seem to derive from the "historical school" of Conservative Judaism or from American liberalism. To anyone sensitive to signs of apikorsus, this is a red flag that increases suspicion about MO in general.

Less uniformity of (at least immediately visible) observance among MO as a communitiy makes charedim suspicious of and look down on the MO.

But I think the issue is best viewed as one of each community's emphasis: do you insist on a community where someone is ostracized if they don't conform, or do you insist on the value of including as much of klal yisrael in your community and encouraging growth rather than punishing halachic deviance when it exists?

I can say for myself that I'd rather live in a community with more uniform observable (and non-observable of course) adherence to halacha than in one with less. But I'd also rather live in a community that places a higher value on the klal over the prat (that is, it's more important to include those who might deviate in certain obvious ways as part of the klal than it is to exclude them in order to shelter each individual from their influence) than one that makes the opposite judgment. It's easy to see why these two values create a tension.

1. We've chosen, for understandable educational reasons, to withdraw and live in exclusively Haredi cities and neighborhoods, avoiding as much as possible any social contact with the secular. Then we see MO folks living in normal mixed neighbourhoods and their kids stay observant and loyal to Torah. So why are we so exclusive?

2. We chose, for educational reasons—although some of us really believe it—to teach our children that all secular Israelis are sinners, vacuous, with no values, and corrupt. Then we see MO folks with secular friends who are honest and decent folks and not a threat to the MO kids' religiosity and we wonder: maybe religious observance and being nice aren't linked? But isn't that a complete refutation of what we teach?

3. We have chosen, for the sake of the preservation of Torah in Israel, to prevent our sons from participating in carrying the heavy burden of security, and instead tasked them with learning Torah.Then we found out about Hesder! Damn!

4. We chose for our sons who do not belong, by their personal inclination or learning skills to the group of Torah scholars (Yeshiva bums and worse), to also evade enlistment—including into perfectly kosher army units.Then we see MO's realize that not every kid is a learner and that preparing them for an observant life in the working world turns out great religious Jews and we wonder: why can't we do that?

5. We chose to teach our children not to work for a living, and to devote all their time to Torah study. Then we see MO kids who also have a love of learning but combine it with a worldly occupation and we wonder: when did the mishnah in Avos become apikorsus for us?

6. We chose not to teach our children any labor skills, and we condemn those who do pursue a profession. Then we see MO kids who have great jobs, learn when they can and fulfill the mitzvah of tzedakah gladly, including helping to support those children of ours we just mentioned.

7. We chose (for educational considerations?) not to educate our children to show gratitude to the soldiers who risked their lives and were killed or injured for our sake, too. So we do not mention them in any way by any special day or prayer or special Mishna learning that's dedicated to their memory.Then MO folks point out to us that there is a traditional Jewish middah called hakaras hatov that we're completely missing out on and it annoys us!

8. When extremist, delusional groups behave in ways that besmirch the name of God—e.g. the spitting in Beit Shemesh, dancing during the memorial siren, burning the national flag—our rabbis chose not to condemn them, clearly and consistently ( except for a few faint statements here and there). Then we read about all the public atrocities the MO commit: did you hear they allowed a woman to lead kabalas Shabbos in a shul somewhere!? The horror! And they think throwing dirty diapers and setting garbage cans on fire is bad?

9. We've opted to allow our public officials and pundits to curse out all the secular all the time. Then we read MO presses and can't understand why they only use polite language and try to show insight into their problems.

10. The Haredi press will never offer any praise of or express support for secular Israelis who perform good deeds. Then we look at MO folks who reach out to our non-religious brethren when the causes, like feeding the hungry, cleaning up the neighbourhood, etc. make sense and wonder: might they be giving people a positive impression of frum Jews we're missing out on?

11. We would not agree, under any condition, that secular Israelis turn up in our schools to teach our children heresy, and we would have kept them from putting up stands with books of heresy in our areas.Then we see MO schools letting Chareidim teach because they say stuff like how it's important to seek out God's truth from the best qualified people regardless of their background. Narishkeit!

12. We have spent the last couple of generations trying to redefine Torah-observance as synonymous with contemporary Chareidism and that all Orthodox Jews were chareidim until the last century.Why do the MO's keep going on about how that's not true, and worse, bringing historical evidence to support their position?

Mighty Garnel Ironheart chooses to see the bright side of MO practice, which, of course, exists. The other side, that of cultural immersion in and assimilation into American societal narishkeit, can't be totally pushed aside, though.

Bob, I can play one side just like the other plays one side. How many times have we heard some rebbe extolling old-style yeshiva life where 12-15 year olds are out of bed before dawn and spend almost the entire day in the Beis Medrash just like our ancestors in Europe did? And how wonderful a way it was to learn and how enthusiatic the boys were?Except they only counted those boys who thrived and discounted or wrote out of history the ones that couldn't handle it, didn't see the point of it or left and joined the haskalah!So yes, I could answer all 12 questions the opposite way justifying every single Chareidi concern in them by pointing out the high OTD rate in MO, the lack of punctilious observance amongst much of the community or the lack of high level learning in many places. But to be fair I'd have to compare that group with the less-optimal side of Chareidism.

Well to be fair. Look, here's an example: which is better, Star Trek or Star Wars?One could compare The Phantom Menace to The Wrath of Khan and come away with the impression Star Trek is superior to Star Wars.Or one could compare A New Hope to The Final Frontier and obviously conclude that Star Wars is superior. And anyone with even a passing knowledge of the two franchises would dismiss your conclusion because you're putting up the best against the worst.Now if you put A New Hope up against the Wrath of Khan (and, of course, conclude they both rock!) then you're playing the game correctly.It's the same here. Chareidism makes certain claims. Fine, I'll stack 'em up against analogous claims made by MO.